Jacob Phillips

Jacon Phillips was born February 15, 1825 in Urbana, Champaign, Ohio. He died October 31, 1914 in Newton, Livingston County, Illinois. He is buried in the Phillips Cemetary.

JACOB PHILLIPS owns 900 acres of valuable land in Newtown Township and has his home on section 7. The greater part of his real estate is under a good degree of cultivation, and the balance includes 180 acres of timber. The family residence is a substantial and convenient structure, and the large barn in the rear one of the finest in the township. Our subject, as one of the oldest settlers of Livingston County, is looked upon with peculiar respect. He came to this locality in the spring of 1837, with his parents, who located near the creek but a few feet from the present residence of our subject.

The gentleman of whom we write is the son of Edward Phillips, who was born in Maryland about 1768, about eight years prior to the Revolutionary War. He continued in his native State until reaching middle life, in the meantime having married and become the father of a family. Then with his wife and seven children he emigrated to Ohio, where the mother subsequently died, and the father was married to Mrs. Barbara Welsh Loman, the widow of James Loman, a native of Maryland, who died six weeks after reaching Ohio. They had become the parents of eight children, and Mr. Loman had been an acquaintance of Mr. Phillips. The Loman children grew up under the protecting care of their step-father, but only one is now living, Arthur B., who came to this State many years ago and is engaged in farming and stock-raising near Ottawa.

The children of Edward Phillips first union are recorded as follows: James, born in Maryland and died in Logan County, this State, leaving a wife and large family of children; William died in Ohio when about twenty-one years old ; John engaged in farming in Newtown Township, and died about 1870-80, leaving a widow and five children; Edward died in Iowa leaving a family; Rebecca died in Ohio when about twenty years of age. Of the second marriage of Edward Phillips there were born four children, namely: Barbara, the wife of a wealthy farmer living near Odell; Jacob, of our sketch: Rachel, of Fairmont, Neb., and Mary, Mrs. William Ziegler, of Newtown Township. The mother of these children died at her home in Newtown in 1863, and her remains were laid to rest in the cemetery not far from the residence of her son, our subject. The father had died in 1847, when seventy-nine years old, and the mother was about the same age at the time of her death. Both were members in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, in which the father
officiated as Class-Leader, and was one of the organizers of the society at Bethel. He had enjoyed only limited advantages during his youth but possessed a remarkable memory, and being more than ordinarily intelligent, kept himself well informed upon matters of general interest. He preserved his health and strength remarkably and when seventy-four years old would walk eight or ten miles to attend church. He was of a resolute and determined disposition and greatly respected with his neighbors.

Jacob Phillips was but thirteen years of age when his parents came overland to Illinois, and he remembers many incidents of the journey and the after difficulties which the family experienced as pioneers. He continued with his mother until her death, and when twenty-two years of age was married to Miss Amy Jane Lundy, born Jan. 28, 1848, the daughter of Amos Lundy, now deceased. The young people commenced housekeeping in Newtown Township, and in due time became the parents of two children, namely : Orville F., now married and living in Dakota, and Mary Melissa, the wife of Levy Snyder, of Newtown Township. The mother of these children lived only a few years after her marriage, her death taking place at her home in Newtown Feb. 28, l80l.